"For well over a century, Darwin's theory of natural selection has served as biology's grand unifying framework, explaining how species adapt and evolve through the differential reproduction of randomly generated variations. Given its success in biology, it's natural to wonder whether this framework might explain another kind of evolution we see all around us: That of human culture. A scientific framework for cultural evolution could integrate the social sciences under one explanatory umbrella, as natural selection did for the life sciences."
"It could help us understand how we got here, who we are, and where we're headed. It might help us document human civilization, or be used to mine trends or analyze gaps in technological change, and shed light on what factors lead to ground-breaking innovations."
Darwin's natural selection explains biological adaptation via differential reproduction of randomly generated variations, providing a unifying framework for the life sciences. A comparable scientific framework for cultural evolution could integrate the social sciences and illuminate how human culture arose, progressed, and innovates. Cultural innovations accumulate adaptively—technologies, artistic styles, and practices build on earlier ones and spread because they benefit bearers. Unlike biological evolution, culture does not face the problem of non-transmission of acquired traits, since innovations can be copied across individuals. However, culture lacks the specific algorithmic structure that natural selection requires, limiting direct application of Darwinian mechanisms.
Read at Psychology Today
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